Using Radio commands to move units.

[Baphomet]

     I don't know if this is in the right area. If not I apologise in advance.

     I searched the tutorials for something on how to do this. Perhaps I missed it however I did come up with something similar. I am still unclear as to what to do in my particular case. I want to simply make a trigger that when you use the radio alpha command a vehicle or soldier affected by it moves to a waypoint or through multiple waypoints. Nothing terribly complex I don't think. Still I can't seem to figure it out. I know there are some examples out there I could get some insight from (such as the fourth or fifth mission for the res campaign where you steal some tanks). However usually it gets confusing what exactly applies and what doesn't.

If anyone could give me a hand I'd appreciate it.

[crow]

 :)You need to make some variable true.  Create a trigger set it to be activated by radio Alpha or what ever you want.  In the onactivation feild put something like go = true.  Now create a unit at a location give it a waypoint or series of waypoints.  In the first waypoint put in the condition feild go.  Now when you radio Alpha the unit will follow its waypoints.  You can also put text in the effects tab of the trigger.  Hope this helps. :cheers:

[Baphomet]

     Hm. One thing though. How do you get the trigger to affect that particular unit? I tried that and the chopper just took off regardless of any radio alpha command issued. I think I need to add something else... What I don't know.

[Kaliyuga]

Synch a radio activated trigger to the units initial waypoint.. it will hold there until the trigger is activated.... it's that simple

[Baphomet]

     Thats great... except I'm not really sure on how to do that.

[walker]

Hi Baphomet

If you are talking about moving troops on your own side you could use the the Command Engine. It is a ready made system for controling up to a light battalion. (35 squads)

http://www.thechainofcommand.com/graphic/

http://www.thechainofcommand.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

Kind Regards Walker

[macguba]

No worries m8, its dead easy.    Give your dude a nice series of waypoints.     Now create your trigger which is fired by Radio Alpha.     Click on "Synchronise" at the top of the Mission Editor.     Now, with your mouse click and hold on the trigger and draw a line to the first waypoint, where you let go.  Bingo!   The trigger and waypoint are synchro'd.   Admire the nice blue line.    The dude will not pass the waypoint till the trigger fires.

(If the dude is a helicopter there is a slight complication:  helicopters love to take off when you don't want them to and the only way to stop them is to mess with their fuel.    Basically take it all away and only give it back when you want them to fly.    Check out the setfuel command in the unofficial command reference manual in the Editor's Depot.    But make the radio thing work with something nice and easy like a soldier or a tank first.)

OK, nearly there, you just need one more spell.   Somewhere you have to have something like

1 SetRadioMsg "OK boys - advance!"

otherwise you won't be able to use the radio at all.     That line could go in the activation field of a trigger.  If you want the message to appear at the start of the mission just put

true

in the condition field of the trigger.

Hope that puts you on the right track

[Kaliyuga]

OK, nearly there, you just need one more spell.   Somewhere you have to have something like

1 SetRadioMsg "OK boys - advance!"

otherwise you won't be able to use the radio at all.

Not quite true there Macguba......  using that syntax will change the text associated with radio alpha... if you omit that line of code it will just say "Alpha", but will still work just fine

Also, regarding the whole setfuel thing, there's never only one way of doing something in OFP ;D ... using one of these lines of code will work just as well if not better than the whole empty gas tank bit  (Thanks to Sui for pointing that out)


count crew heli < 3
A condition to cause a chopper to wait for it's cargo to disembark.
With this one remember that it is crucial that the pilot and gunner can't be killed. If it is at all possible that they can, you should use something else

count crew heli == (west countside (units group) + 2)
A condition to cause a chopper to wait for all living units in group to be aboard. Again, this relies on the driver and gunner always being alive. Also, if your group is not west, change the west to what is applicable (east, civilian etc)

[macguba]

You're dead right there m8, just tried it.  Didn't know that.

Sometimes (I think you mean usually - Ed.) I astound myself with the depths of my own ignorance.  

And you're right Kaliyuga, OFP is a strange and wonderful mistress ........ So far I've thought of two other ways of stopping the chopper taking off so I apologise for the "only" part.   I won't mention them now because poor old Baphomet is probably confused enough already.

[Baphomet]

     Alrighty then. Make a unit with waypoints, create a trigger set to "radio alpha", and sync. Easy enough. Although I think I see a problem emerging here but I don't know how to correct it. The vehicle goes to the first waypoint and -then- waits. Unfortunately I need the vehicle to remain static until I need it to go somewhere. I'd assume setting the fuel to nothing would kind of help that... but how would that work if the vehicle must go to the first waypoint and then wait for the radio signal? Especially if its a helicopter.

[macguba]

Put the first waypoint right on top of the vehicle:  they will combine so that you have to press and hold the shift key to edit the unit underneath the waypoint.    You can synch your trigger to that waypoint in the usual way so the chopper should stay there.

Lets say the chopper is called helo1.  In his init line put

this setfuel 0

and in the "on activation" field of the trigger put

helo1 setfuel 1

Never actually done it myself so answer not guaranteed, but it should work.  Depending on exactly what you're trying to do Kaliyuga's count crew suggestion might work better.     Try both ... get hold of the official and unoffical command refs from the Editor's Depot and play around with the commands.   There are also some good tutorials on triggers and waypoints that might help.

Hope that all makes sense.  

[Baphomet]

     Yes! Excellent. It works fine. Great! Thanks a lot guys. It wasn't so hard after all. I have one less-slightly pertinent question to ask if anyone. Are there keys mapped to activate radio commands without having to go into the map mode? (thanks for telling me about the shift key when editing things beneath waypoints. Very handy)

[Kaliyuga]

hitting 0 and then 0 again will bring up the radio menu in the upper right hand corner of your screen.. same place you command your squad mates from...

[macguba]

Yes.    During normal gameplay press

0    (the one next to the 9)

now press it again

and you should be in the radio menu.

Glad we could help Baphomet

[Sefe]

helicopters love to take off when you don't want them to and the only way to stop them is to mess with their fuel

That is not exactly right. If you want to make a helicopter stop, write this in it's init field:

DoStop this

In the trigger's onActivation field that makes the helo start, type:

ChopperName DoFollow (Leader ChopperName)

Dead simple when you know how it's done